Mass Effect: The Viking Saga - Origins
by Kneekster
Summary: After a night of heavy drinking, I wake up and find myself in the Mass Effect universe. Will I be able to fix everything I hated from the games? [SI / Self Insert]
1. Ch 1 - Genesis

A/N: TL;DR: This is my first ever fanfic. Rated M for language, violence and (maybe) sex. SI/Self Insert.

Hello and welcome, dear readers!

This is the first work of fiction I've ever written, so please bear that in mind when you call me names in your reviews! I also don't have a beta reader yet (if you want to be my beta, let me know in a PM!), so there may be some errors. If you spot any blatant ones, don't hesitate to hit me up and letting me know!

This will (hopefully) eventually be a series spanning the entire ME 1-3 series, with this first installment covering the time period from around the time my Self Insert gets transported to the ME-Verse until around the time ME 1 starts. It's rated M for language, violence and possibly sex, mainly depending on if I can actually write a sex-scene worth a damn. It'll probably include a bunch of references to pop-culture, memes, etc. Pairings are still undecided. OC's will appear (aside from myself). It's not going to be review driven; I'll post a chapter as soon as I think it's done. However, getting nice reviews aren't exactly going to make me write _less_. With that said, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

* * *

**9:02 AM, September 1st 2014, Royal Institute of Technology – Main Courtyard, Stockholm, Sweden  
**

"The Zerø sure ain't pretty this year huh, VP?" I said loud enough for everyone to hear as I glanced over the crowd of freshmen.

The Vice President of our branch of the student organization, as well as my best friend, Michael Shepard, looked over at me before answering, just as loudly. "Yeah, Prez, they look like shit." He didn't even skip a beat, immediately getting what I was going at.

This was all part of the hazing all new freshmen have to go through. Of course, they didn't know that, which made the entire thing that much more fun.

I started speaking to the crowd again. "You may be wondering why me and my Vice President are speaking English when we're all Swedes at a Swedish college. That's where you're wrong, my VP is actually a foreign exchange student, so in order for him not to feel excluded, you will all be speaking English whenever he's nearby." He wasn't. He moved over here from Canada when we were 10, and we were best friends by the time we were 11. He spoke perfect Swedish. But the freshmen didn't speak perfect English, so we used any means available to humiliate them further.

"Uhh, excuse m-" A girl at the front of the crowd began. I'd have none of that.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you must be mistaking this college for a place where you're allowed to speak when not spoken to." I quickly interrupted while walking over to her, getting a few mere inches away from her face. She recoiled like a .44 Magnum – hard and fast. "Now, to answer the question you surely was going to ask without permission, The Zerø is you." I pointed to the freshman who had asked the question. "And you." I pointed to the one next to her. "And you." I pointed to a third, a ways away from where I was standing. "And The Zerø are every one of you, as a collective. It's what you'll be called until we, " I turned and pointed between Michael and myself. "find you worthy of using your normal names. Until then, you will also wear these stupid-ass-looking hats." I pointed at one of the hats that every one in the crowd was wearing.

"Now, I think it's time The Zerø had their first lesson, don't you think, VP?" I continued as I walked back to stand next to Michael.

"Yeah, sounds good, Prez." He answered with a grin. "Some of you fatso's look a bit out of shape, how about everyone runs a couple of laps around campus?" This was met with groans from just about everyone in the crowd. I understood their feelings; the campus was HUGE. "I must have misheard you, because it sounded like you _didn't_ say 'Sir, yes Vice President, sir!'"

They just looked at us for a moment, not really understanding what to do. "In case it wasn't _clear_, you will answer any command given by us with 'Sir, yes, "our title", sir', IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!?" I took mercy upon their misunderstanding souls, if only to get a chance to yell at them again.

This time most of them got it, it seemed. "Sir, yes President, sir!" More than half of them shouted, before jogging off, as per our instructions.

"And don't cut any corners, trust me, we'll know!" I shouted as the last of them disappeared. It didn't take long before we couldn't contain it anymore and burst out into laughter.

"They- They're so gullible." Michael managed to wheeze out between laughing fits. "I bet they believe we have the power to make them do this shit!"

"Hey, it's all for a good cause, right?" I asked him with a smirk. We'd tell ourselves that if they couldn't take the mental stress our first couple of weeks caused them, they couldn't take the stress that their now not-so-future education – one of the hardest there are – would bring. We were just saving them time, essentially. At least in theory. In reality, we were just abusing our pseudo-power.

"Yeah. Let's go grab a beer while they're working their asses off."

"I love it when it's you who suggest that, it makes me feel less like an alcoholic."

* * *

My first name is Eric, and since I've never really liked my last name I'm just going to use the name I ended up using later in my life, Anderson (which also accidentally is one of Sweden's most common last names). My hair is rat-colored and quite short, just around two inches. I have greenish-blue eyes, and am about 6'5". I was 24 years old and had just started my senior year at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, one of Sweden's most prestigious colleges, where I was the president of my program's branch of the student organization, and had been since my sophomore year. This meant that I was in charge of hazing the new freshmen for our each year, or 'zeroing' as we call it in Swedish (hence the term 'the zerø').

My vice president was Michael Shepard, who'd been my best friend since we were both 11. He was about my height, but had black hair and dark green eyes. During the summer break between high school and college we went through the Swedish Basic Military Training (BMT) together. We reached the awesome, high rank of Private. Neither of us actually considered a military career, but it looked good on your CV. It also helped when we were hazing the freshmen, having gone through the real deal ourselves.

Michael and I acted all tough and cool, but deep down we were just a couple of nerds who loved gaming. We both loved the Mass Effect series (except for the ending of the third, obviously), and had many good laughs at how his last name was the same as the protagonist's in Mass Effect.

* * *

As we walked, albeit a tad bit unsteadily from our beers, back to our rendezvous-point, we noticed a lone girl standing there, waiting, apparently done way before she should have been.

"Looks like The Zerø cheated." I said to Michael, loud enough for the girl standing there to hear.

"I didn't cheat." The girl, who was according to her hat named Jane, responded, not even sounding out of breath.

"Oh, so you just happen to run marathons in your spare time?" I said, my voice laced full of sarcasm, grinning at my best friend.

"Well, yes."

"Oh yeah, Ms. Marathon, how many have you run, then?" Michael asked her, sounding as disbelieving as I was.

"Well, I've run the Stockholm Marathon for 5 years in a row now, and last year I ran the London Marathon, too." We stared at her; shock clear in our faces. At this point, she took up the smile that we had dropped. "What? Studies show that students who are physically fit also do better intellectually."

"Allright, whatever, just go sit over there on the grass, while we wait for the rest of The Zerø." I said to her, before quickly whispering to Michael as she walked away. "Dibs."

"Dammit, Eric, imagine if we got married, she'd be Jane Shepard. Think about how epic it would be!" He whispered back.

"You two are not getting married."

"Why?"

"Because I called dibs first."

"You know what, fuck you." He replied with a grin, showing he wasn't completely serious. "I'll get you back for this, you know that, right?"

"I'm counting on it."

* * *

The rest of the two initiation weeks went about the same way, us abusing our power, and the freshmen accepting their fate. We didn't go too overboard – they didn't come to any real harm – but that's not to say they had it easy.

A few days before their hazing period officially ended, we had a gasque; a sort of party that starts with dinner and ends with one hell of a party. That particular one was at the student organization's "sports cabin", situated about an hour from central Stockholm. Since it was so far away from the city, it was custom for must people to spend the night there too, going home the day after.

During the dinner, Jane was conveniently placed next to me, whereas Michael sat next to just the next-best looking girl from that year. My plan was to not get shit faced that night, so that I could 'seal the deal', so to speak. Alas, one does not simply drink _one_ beer.

By the time dinner was over, I was pretty drunk, and it seemed like a good idea to go out to the cliffs to watch the sunset with Jane. Which it would have been, had I not been that drunk. As it was, I was barely hanging on by a thread, and we even brought a six-pack out with us. After drinking that much, nature is bound to call. I went into the woods to take a piss, leaving her behind on the cliffs, all alone.

Around here my memory starts to get a bit foggy, but I remember standing in the woods, peeing against a tree when I see a flash, and then it all went black.

* * *

The next thing I knew, I was lying face down in the grass somewhere. With the worst hangover I've ever had.

"Uuuuuunngh…" I tried to put my confusion into words, and I'm not really sure if it was an extreme success or an epic fail.

After a couple of minutes of me trying to get myself together enough to actually sit up, I managed to muster the strength to do just that. To call what I saw when I properly sat up shocking would be the understatement of the year. I was flabbergasted.

I was sitting in the courtyard in the middle of RIT campus. But it was… Wrong. There was no one anywhere – it was completely deserted. Everything looked withered and old, none of the trees that were here the day before were left, and there was a layer of dust over everything.

'What the hell happened yesterday?' I thought.

I looked around, before making my way towards the closest major road, thinking that was the best way to figure out what was going on. As I walked through the archway leading out of the courtyard, I was dumbstruck yet again. Everything was in ruins.

The major road I was headed for was littered with large cracks and there were debris all over it; there was no way any cars were going to drive on it any time soon. Then I saw the buildings on the other side of the road. Some had large holes in them, on others entire sides had collapsed and laid scattered at the base of the structure in the form of debris of various sizes and shapes.

I needed to check this out more closely, so I made my way down towards the road. As I came closer, I noticed the buildings were littered with small holes. Walking up to one of the buildings, it was obvious they were bullet holes.

'What the fuck? Did I sleep through World War III and wake up in some post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland?'

I still very much recognized the landscape; all the houses from before were there, they were just in ruins and full of bullet holes.

While I stood and inspected the house, wondering just what had happened, I suddenly felt something poke me in the back. "Hands up, and turn around slowly" I heard a man say from behind me. I did as he asked, not wanting to get shot.

When I had turned, I got a look at his gun; it looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. He also had two considerably larger partners who stood just behind him, to his left and right. They all wore mismatched armor, but only the guy in the middle had a gun. "You think you can just waltz into Viking territory, just like that?" He continued, pointing the gun up at my face.

"Wha- Vikings, what are you talking about? And what happened to all the houses? And the fucking road?" In retrospect, it probably wasn't that smart asking these questions to the man holding me at gunpoint. At the time, though, I was too confused to think straight.

"What the fuck are _you_ talking about, fool? You live in Stockholm and haven't heard of the Vikings? You gotta be kidding!" He started laughing, and his friends soon joined him, probably out of fear, considering their laughs were as fake as they get.

'So he is the leader.'

"I'll tell you what, I'm feeling generous today. I'm not gonna kick your lying ass for disrespecting us. Just give us your credit chit and your omni-tool, and you can be on your way." He continued while lowering his gun somewhat, in some show of good faith.

'Omni-tool? Credit chit? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!' I thought before answering him. "I- I don't have an omni-tool. Or any credit chit…"

"Well, it looks like this idiot _wants_ to get beat up. Boys, do your thing." He backed up a few steps; apparently wanting to get out of harms way while the thugs softened me up.

Sure, I had gone through basic, but there was no way I was going to take down two guys with upper arms the size of my thighs, especially not ones who wore armor while I was just wearing normal clothes. Still, the last thing to leave a man is his hope, so I had to try.

I shifted to a CQC stance we'd learned at BMT. As they closed on me, a blue light flickered in and out of existence around me. 'Biotics? Stasis? I'm not paralyzed, though. If anything, I feel more powerful. But I'm no biotic…'

Trust me, I'd tried that many times when I was laying at home in my couch and my drink was _just_ out of reach. My non-existent biotics never worked.

By now they were just a couple of feet away from me. Seconds later, I was within their range, and the left one took a swing at me, which I deftly dodged under, coming up to counter-attack his midsection while he was out of balance. I was prepared to dodge his next attack, but was surprised when my punch was accompanied with a blue glow, and was even more surprised to find him flying away towards a block of concrete with reinforcement bars sticking out at random places and angles.

I was so dumbstruck at what had happened that I didn't notice the other goon readying a brutal punch of his own, until it was too late. I could only close my eyes and hold up my hands in defense, hoping to mitigate some of the force. When I didn't feel blinding pain, but instead hear a crunch, I opened my eyes to see the second man lying in front of me in a heap of flesh, with bones sticking out.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I heard the leader shout, standing just a couple of feet away from me. He raised his gun as he continued. "You lifted him up 5 yards in the air and smashed him down to the ground again?! I didn't even know biotics could do that!"

At this point, I was absolutely clueless about what was happening, but notice the one I first punched had landed somewhat unfortunately. For him. His head was impaled through the right eye-socket on one of the rebars sticking out of the block of concrete, with his ocular nerve twisted around the bar, making the eye hang from it like an ornament.

The leader looked over to see what I was looking at. His face instantly turned into a snarl. "I was going to be nice to you, but killing my friends tends to make me do un-kind things." His voice was just cold; he didn't even sound angry.

"Look, I- It was an accident, okay?" I tried reasoning with him.

"An accident? You killing my friends was an ACCIDENT?!" It didn't work.

If pleading didn't work, intimidation might. "If you don't let me go, I'll do the same to you."

"Hah! I have a gun, kid, what are you suppose-" He didn't get to finish his sentence as I threw up my hands on pure instinct, with my palms facing him. Out of my hands flew a ball of blue light, hitting the man square in the face. He fell to his knees, screaming and grasping at his face in pain.

Within seconds, his outer skin layers had disappeared, and you could now see the muscles and veins in his face. The entire thing was eerily reminiscent to The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

He soon stopped twitching and just laid there, bleeding out while his face melted off.

A shot rang out, ending the man's suffering, while I heard a man speak from one of the floors on the building behind me. "Impressive. Where did you learn that level of biotics?"

I walked a ways away from the house so I could see the man properly. Behind him stood two-dozen other people in mismatched armor. In fact, the man at the front, apparently the leader, was the only one who had matching colors on his armor.

"Normally, when someone kills one of my lieutenants, I make them suffer before they die." He apparently didn't expect an answer to his initial question. "However, I might be willing to make an exception for you."

I swallowed. There was no way I was taking out this entire crew, biotics or not. I was forced to play nice. "What do you want from me?"

He laughed before responding. "Why, I want you to join us, of course!"

He seemed more and more crazy by the second. 'I killed this guy's people, and he wants me to join his gang? I've never been in a gang. I've always been a goody-two-shoes.'

"I… Who are you people, even?" I asked him, not sure if I'd get an answer or not.

"We?" He asked incredulously. "We're the Valhallavägen Vikings."

* * *

A/N: Wooo, first chapter done! :D

Chapter two is mostly done, just needs some finishing touches and to be proofread and we're good to go! It'll probably be up within a couple of days.


	2. Ch 2 - Leaving Earth

A/N: OHMYGOD, I'm completely overwhelmed by how well received the first chapter was! I never thought I'd get that much attention! Thanks to anyone who read the story, special thanks to anyone who favorited/followed, and EXTRA special thanks to you people who've reviewed so far (I realize I really should have named the story 'Swedish Space Vikings' (SSV, get it?), but then again, hindsight is 20/20). You readers are the reason I'm doing this, so keep it up, please! :D

Also, sorry for not updating sooner. I got distracted by The Fappening, and school's been riding me hard (no pun intended).

As a side note, I don't really get 's view on explicit sexual material. In the "do's and don't's" of publishing here, they say they don't allow any explicit material what-so-ever, but I've read numerous lemons here, many of which are really old, and still haven't been taken down. So someone please enlighten me on that. Still looking for a beta, so if you're interested - hit me up!

Also, I forgot to mention this last chapter; Valhallavägen is a large road in Stockholm. It translates to 'Valhalla Road'. Just in case anyone was curious :P

Anyway, enough about me, on with the story!

* * *

**2:34 PM, January 1st 2173, Stockholm, Sweden, Earth**

'Winter. Snow. I hate snow. I used to like winter, and the snow that came with it. I used to go skiing with my family. Now I'll never do that ever again. Now the snow is just an encumbrance, and the winter freezing.'

I came here four months ago, confused and disbelieving. I soon realized I'd been transported over 150 years into the future, to the Mass Effect universe. I admit, it was quite a lot to take in, but I managed to not become crazy somewhat okay, largely thanks to reading all those self-insert fanfic's. Thank god for fanfiction.

'I never thought I'd miss walls so much, but when it's –20 degrees, an intact building is all you can dream of.'

When the leader of the Vikings "offered" me to join I didn't have a choice, so I accepted, figuring I'd make up for it later in my life, somehow. I figured I'd just glide along, not drawing any attention to me; staying under the radar. Fate had another plan. A month after I had joined, I'd unfortunately drawn enough positive attention to myself that I found myself commanding a small team. After that, my team grew. The high-ranking officers said I had "a natural ability to lead". What a load of bull.

First I managed to save a Quarian from certain death on the first mission I commanded, and after a while, other people wanted to join too, noticing my squads' members had a tendency to die a lot less than in other squads.

When I found the Quarian, we had just completed the first mission I was in charge of. We assaulted a poorly fortified warehouse belonging to a rivaling gang, hoping to get at their stash of red sand.

* * *

_Someone was shouting, and there was a lot of commotion coming from one of the storage rooms. "Hey, don't hog the alien, I want some too!"_

_'__Alien? What are they doing?'_

_As I approached the storage room the noise was coming from, I started hearing an accented female voice begging someone to stop. I started to move faster._

_When I got there a couple of seconds later, I saw all of my subordinates standing in a corner, looking at a form lying on the ground, with my second in command standing above it._

_"__What's going on in here?"_

_The crowd parted so I could see the entire situation. What I saw made me see red. The form lying on the ground was a Quarian woman, and my second in command was in the process of trying to find the clasps to undo her suit._

_"__Oh, hey Sarge. We found this girl chained here, figured we'd have some fun with he-" I interrupted him both physically and verbally before he completed that sentence._

_"__WE." I shouted as I biotically lifted him the few yards up to the ceiling. "DO _NOT." _I continued as I slammed him with non-lethal force into the ground. It still hurt. "RAPE PEOPLE!" I finished while walking up to him and pistol-whipping him hard in the face. "Any questions?" I turned around to my other subordinates to make sure I got my point across._

_They all shook their head, looking frightened. 'Good. At least they won't be doing that again.' I turned to the prone Quarian. "Are you okay? Has your suit integrity been compromised? I have some medi-gel if that's the case, but I'm afraid there aren't any clean-rooms nearby."_

_"__I- No, I'm okay. My suit's okay too." She looked up at me, confused. Her voice was pretty accented, and had a metallic tinge to it. It was kind of cute._

_"__All right, good." I offered her a hand to help her stand up. "Come on, let's go into the office."_

_After accepting my helping hand, we made our way to the office next door, from where they had handled all the business around here. We sat down on the chairs that stood in front of the desk at the back of the room._

_"__Thanks for… You know, for saving my life and all." She sounded quite awkward about all of this._

_"__Oh no, don't worry about it. It was my fault for having undisciplined men to begin with." I tried to sound apologizing. "My name's Eric, by the way." I continued, sticking out my hand to offer a handshake._

_"__Well, nice to meet you Eric, my name's Seya'Gerrel nar Neema." She said as we shook hands._

_'__Holy shit, Gerell? I'm in the presence of _royalty_ here! Almost.' I couldn't help but notice the prefix to her ship name. "So, 'nar', eh? How's the pilgrimage been working out for you?"_

_"__How did you… Actually, never mind. It's been going to hell so far."_

_'__Quite literally if it brought you here, if you're asking me.' I thought as she continued._

_"__I started out by going to Illium, thinking I could get rich fast there. What a _bosh'tet_ I was. I just got more and more indebted, with no way off-planet. I was forced into indentured servitude." She sounded, somewhat understandable, sad at how her pilgrimage had turned out._

_"__Slavery, you mean?"_

_"__Yes. I was sold to this gang as a mechanic. A _mechanic! _I can _fight_, and they have me stuck doing maintenance on their guns or adding mods or something."_

_"__Yeah, you sure were a tough opponent back there for my good-for-nothing subordinates." I couldn't help but be sarcastic; she had been utterly helpless._

_"__That's not my fault, I'm a biotic, and they put this stupid biotic dampener on me when I was sold!" She motioned to her collar, which I noticed just now. "You can't expect a biotic to fight with just her fists."_

_"__Wait, you're a biotic? I thought there didn't exist any Quarian biotics?"_

_"__Well, there aren't many of us. There are totally 5 biotics in the Fleet. When my mom was pregnant with me, she worked on one of the oldest ships in the fleet. Its core gave off a constant, low dose of eezo radiation. Low enough not to be noticed, that is, but large enough to influence us. It caused fetal-me to develop eezo nodes all around my body. She… She died of radiation poisoning when I was just a few years old."_

_"__I'm… So sorry." I sheepishly looked down at the ground, truly sorry for making her relive such a terrible experience._

_"__It's all right. I mean, I _was _sad when she died, but that was so long ago. Now I'm instead tormented by having to live up to my father's, and everyone else's, expectations." Her voice suddenly took a sad tone again, as she found the ground very interesting, looking down at it, lost in thought. "He's an admiral, and everyone's expecting me to bring back a grand pilgrimage gift, carry on the family tradition, you know?" She looked up at me again, those bright glowing eyes boring into my very soul._

_"__Well, no. I don't actually know; I'm an orphan." I couldn't well tell her the truth._

_"__Oh… I'm sorry." Now it was her turn to look sheepish._

_"__Don't be, I never knew them, and like you said, it was so long ago, I don't really feel it anymore." It was hard keeping up a façade of indifference when in my mind, I had parents just four months ago, but I think I managed it, at least somewhat. "How big would your pilgrimage gift have to be?"_

_"__A ship, or something of equal value would be enough."_

_"__A _ship_!? You're kidding?" I couldn't believe what she was saying._

_"__No."_

_"__Well, that might take a while to get enough money for…" I trailed off as I realized something. 'Time to make some connections.' "You say you can fight?" She nodded. "Well, you could join my squad. It's not like we make silly amounts of creds, but the pay isn't bad." She tilted her head, deep in thought. "Hey, at least it beats being a slave, right?" I joked._

_She had a short laugh before answering. "Sure."_

* * *

**2:41 PM, January 1st 2173, Stockholm, Sweden, Earth**

I looked over my squad, struggling with walking through the roughly ten inches of snow occupying the ground, currently on our way back to base after our latest mission. They all stood out from the snow quite harshly; none of them had matching armor but Seya, and she couldn't exactly re-paint her suit to blend in with the surroundings. I was the only one who was even remotely stealthed, having at least painted my armor in winter-land camouflage; white with a few black patches. 'They'd be sitting ducks if we were to happen upon an…'

With my mind lost in thought, I was startled when a shot rang out and Seya's shields flared up.

"AMBUSH! GET INTO COVER!" I shouted while sprinting towards the nearest concrete block lying on the road, trying to dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge the fire coming our way, while coalescing a barrier around me.

As my back slammed into the impromptu cover, I drew my sniper rifle and checked out the status of my team. Seya was taking cover right next to me, but all the others were either dead or bleeding out on the ground, having been too slow to scramble for cover. Seya and I had been dead too, if it weren't for our biotic barriers.

"I'm gonna see if I can spot where he's at, stay in cover." I commanded before leaning around the edge of our cover, trying to find the sniper with the help of the scope on my rifle.

I searched for almost ten seconds before seeing a reflection of the sun coming from a house, without any wall facing us, about a quarter-mile away. As soon as I spotted it, I recoiled back into the safety of the cover, and not a moment too soon. While my form was still retreating, a shot rang out, and the snow flew up in a small cloud where I had just been a millisecond ago.

"I think I can take him out, hang on." I said as I leaned out around the concrete block again. Where there had just been a flash of light last time, now stood a man, inches away from the several-story drop a step backwards for him would mean. He was holding a pistol, talking animatedly to another person, standing further into the room.

Suddenly, the second man reached for his gun, but before he's even reached it, the sniper shot him in the shoulder, making the victim spin from the force of the impact.

I immediately shot the sniper in the knee. 'No one else is dying on my watch. Not today.' As the projectile hit him, he lost his balance and started to fall backwards. 'Oh no, you don't!' I was going to look the man responsible for all this carnage in the eye before he died. As he was falling, I used my biotics to slow his fall to a halt, slowly setting him down on the ground.

I turned to Seya. "I shot him in the knee, he's lying on the ground in front of the building. You go and subdue him while I check out the house, he shot someone up there."

"All right." She rose and we started walking towards the house, keeping the sniper in our sights.

When we reached him, she crouched and got out some sort of restraining device she had in a pocket. "You go. I've got this."

I replied in the affirmative and made my way up the stairs.

When I got up there, I saw an unconscious man lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. It gushed out of a hole in his left shoulder; the shot had penetrated both his shields and his armor. His armor was black, except for his right arm; it had a red stripe with two white stripes on either side of it. 'N7? Here?'

I quickly crouched down and began administering medi-gel as fast as possible. 'Don't die on me, Mr. N7…' "Seya, get up here when you're done, and bring the prisoner with you."

"Will do."

* * *

I stopped the bleeding fairly quickly, and since we'd gotten there so relatively fast, the N7 marine was stable – unconscious, but stable. Without us arriving in such a timely manner, however, he would've surely bled out right there on the floor.

As it was now, he was sitting, perched up against a wall. Seya and I were sitting across from him, simply waiting; the situation was out of our control, we couldn't do much else. Seya had put some sort of handcuffs on the sniper, who was now lying face down on the ground between the unconscious marine and us. He had also been given medi-gel for his knee wound, but when he had woken up after a couple of minutes, all he'd done was spew racist remarks against Seya and calling me a "race traitor". After a while I grew sick of him and knocked him out again.

"You think this guy can actually help us?" She didn't sound too convinced.

I looked over at her with a reassuring smile. "He's an N7, they are the finest warriors humanity has to offer. If he can't do it, no one can."

Suddenly, I heard the telltale whirr of a gun unfolding. I looked over at the only possible source of the sound; the marine had his gun pointed at us. He was still sitting down, but he was very much awake. "How did you know I was an N7?" His voice was harsh and commanding. He was used to giving orders.

I rolled my eyes in a very dramatic manner. "Duh." I said, motioning to his right harm. "Good to see you're okay, by the way."

"Not many civilians recognize N7 markings… Who are you?" He sounded pretty suspicious.

'Good, he's not an idiot.'

"I'm the guy who saved your life, that's who. As for names, you can call me Eric." I motioned to the Quarian sitting next to me "This is my friend and the sole survivor of my team, Seya'Gerrel nar Neema."

"Hah," He barked out a short laugh. "I guess that's all I'm gonna get, huh." He seemed to have eased up somewhat. "Why _did_ you save me, exactly?" He still wouldn't put down his gun, though.

"I dislike it when more people than necessary die."

"But you didn't have any qualms about killing him?" He pointed to the sniper's prone form.

"Oh, he's not dead, I just shot him in the knee. Besides – shooting up my entire squad, having a heated discussion with a team member which ends in drawn guns and him shooting you… Where I come from, that's called going rogue."

"But he fell several stories to the ground…" The operative sounded disbelieving.

"Biotic." I said and smirked as I coalesced a blue shimmer around my right hand, before letting it go. "Besides, I wouldn't tie up a dead man, that'd just be bad manners."

"Oh." He lowered his gun, but didn't put it away. "Listen, I need to contact my CO, get me his helmet." He motioned to the man lying prone on the ground between us.

I put my hands up to show I wasn't going to attempt anything, before moving over and taking off the sniper's helmet.

"Why not just use your own?" I asked as I passed the helmet to him.

"Comms. must have broken from the fall when I got shot. He must have disabled his own, so we couldn't track him down that way. He did go rogue, by the way."

When he removed his helmet, I finally got a look at his face. He was a white middle-aged man, with hard features and a large scar on his face. One started on the right side of his forehead, went down through his eyebrow and ended around his right cheekbone. Surprisingly, he still appeared to have normal vision on that eye. His hair was short-cropped and dark. If it had any gray spots, they weren't noticeable.

"Sir?" It apparently didn't take him very long to activate the comm. device after he put on his helmet. "Yes sir, it's me. I have him under control, but I can't explain over comms." He was quiet for a while, presumably awaiting further orders. "Affirmative, I'll hold position and wait for you."

"So he's on his way here?" I inquired.

"Yes. You'll have to explain the whole situation to him too, I'm afraid."

* * *

When the CO arrived, he reacted very much the same way the first N7 did when he woke up. I explained the situation to him, and he too let go of at least the immediate hostility. I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something familiar about him throughout the conversation, though.

When I started reaching the end of my explanation, I decided to tell the new operative what I hadn't told the first one. "I had another reason for saving you." I gestured at the man whose life I'd saved less than an hour ago. "We actually need your help."

"I _knew_ it. There is no such thing as a free lunch!" He apparently didn't appreciate his life being used as a bargaining chip.

"You may or may not know this, but me and my friend here are members in the local gang Valhallavägen Vikings."

In an instant, all the progress we'd just made was thrown out the window. We were now looking down two gun barrels instead of one at a time like before.

"Relax, that's what we need your help with. We want out. And you can't just leave a gang just like that, they'll track you down and kill you, or worse."

They both lowered their guns, but didn't holster them, obviously not completely at ease sitting down and having a friendly chat with two gang members.

"So what's this you need our help for?" The senior officer asked.

"Simple." I said, sporting a smile even the Joker would be proud of. "We kill the gang."

They shared a look and collapsed and holstered their guns.

"The reason we were here in the first place…" The leader said as he reached to take off his helmet. "Is to take down or incapacitate the Valhalla Vikings. It seems our goals coincide."

If I thought his voice felt familiar, there weren't any words for his face. He, too, was in his middle ages, with short black hair, but unlike his subordinate, his skin was black; almost coffee-colored. His face was much more round, but still had a harshness to it. If the other man was used to giving orders, this man was born giving them. Still, his most noteworthy feature was that I knew who he was.

'Holy shit, it's David-_fucking_-Anderson!' I tried not to let my recognition sink through and show on my face, but I'm not sure whether I was successful or not. He didn't comment on it, at any rate.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander David Anderson, and this," He gestured to the man who owed me his life. "is Staff Lieutenant Michael Shepard."

'Shepard? He should be a teenager, barely having joined the military yet… Not a middle-aged N7 Lieutenant…' I thought before realizing what I was doing. 'Or, you know, it could be someone _else_ named Shepard. It's not that uncommon a name. Get a hold of yourself Eric, stop seeing what you want to see.'

This time I definitely didn't manage to hide my surprise, since Shepard asked, "What about me?" while looking very pointedly at me.

I came up with something that wasn't even a lie. "I knew someone with the same name. He was a good man."

Anderson continued, "Anyway, we were sent here with this racist, insubordinate idiot to put an end to the Vikings' red sand pipeline into areas directly under Alliance control. While we were scouting everything out, he must've seen your Quarian friend here…"

As he started telling how things ended up like this, I found myself quoting Tali in my mind. 'She has a _name._'

"because he just yelled 'race traitors' over the comms., and then switched everything off. Next thing we knew, we heard gunshots from where he was situated, so I sent the Lt. to check things out." He continued, starting to pace around the room while he was talking.

"He tells me he's climbing the stairs to see what's up and I hear two shots not a minute after. Then I don't hear a word from him for a long while, and I don't even know what to think." He stopped and faced me, hands gesturing wildly. "Each scenario seems worse than the next, so I just sit tight." He started to pace again. "Couple of minutes later, Shepard is contacting me from a presumably rogue operative's comm. unit, and tells me to get here."

'Well, this certainly _is_ a strange turn of events, I have to give him that.'

"When I get here, I found out a member of the gang we're here to take down has saved his life and has taken down our little traitor using non-lethal force and is offering to help us with our objective, without us even asking for it." I understood Anderson in having a hard time believing all of this.

"Trust me, it's true. I never wanted to join the Vikings in the first place; I was forced and threatened. Seya only joined because I saved her life. We have no love lost for that gang." Not sure if I'd persuaded them, I continued. "There is a condition, though."

"There's always a catch, isn't there?" Shepard asked no one in particular.

"We get to keep all the credits we find in there, to help fund our new legitimate lives."

"What credits?" Anderson asked with a grin.

'Someone knows how to play.' "And another thing. You need to help me get into the Alliance Marine Corps. I have a feeling they're not too keen on letting in old gang members." 'Who technically also doesn't exist.'

"That shouldn't be a problem, we'll figure something out." Anderson assured me.

I smiled and leaned forward. "All right then, this is how we're gonna do it…"

* * *

**11:46 PM, January 1st 2173, Outside Valhallavägen Vikings' Headquarters, Stockholm, Sweden, Earth**

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Shepard's doubt was obvious.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Besides, your shields are pretty powerful, you could probably survive a couple of shots from the pea-shooters the Vikings have." I tried to reassure him as Seya and I led the two, now handcuffed, marines to the Vikings' HQ. We had tied up the last one a ways back, and for now he was unconscious too. Even when he'd come to, he wouldn't manage to get away before we got back.

"'_Probably_'?! Wow, that's inspiring!" Shepard apparently still wasn't convinced.

"Relax Lt., when they've taken us to the holding cells, we'll be out of these shackles and holding our guns again, you'll feel much safer then." At least we'd managed to convince Anderson.

"Yeah, just make sure to give us enough time to knock out the security measures or we'll be swimming in mechs trying to kill us."

"You know who you're talking about right now, right?" I'm not sure if Seya was genuinely insulted or were just feigning. "As soon as I'm in range, I'll have them down before you manage to say '_bosh'tet_'."

"All right, enough bravado, we're almost there. Don't want them to shoot us before we can infiltrate the base, now do we?" Anderson did have a point.

As we approached the large double doors that led into the old abandoned warehouse, which served as the headquarters for the Vikings, one of the two guards standing outside the door called to us. "Halt! Where's the rest of your squad, Eric?"

"These Alliance scumbags managed to kill them off before we got to them. I was thinking we take them prisoners and ask for a ransom." I thought I managed to pull off the hateful slant quite good, and apparently the guards agreed with me, because they let me in without any more questions.

"All right, get them to the cells, in that case." The other guard gave me the go-ahead.

When we passed through the doors, Seya brought out her omni-tool and immediately went to work.

Being so late, the headquarters was almost completely devoid of life, with the exception of drunken people in the various rec. rooms, sleeping people, and a skeleton crew to run the bare essentials. Still, we didn't want any unnecessary attention, so we didn't release our would-be captives just yet.

The warehouse itself was mainly composed of a large room that served as a staging ground for the gang. It had a couple of weapons benches, and several doors along the walls, each leading to a small set of smaller rooms. These smaller rooms could serve as anything varying from personal rooms where people slept, to holding cells, to recreational rooms where there were couches, tables, vid screens and the likes.

We made our way toward the holding cells, greeting the man currently on guard duty outside the cells. Reaching the vacant cells, I went into one with Anderson, while Seya took Shepard into the one right next to it.

"Right, let's get you out of those shackles." I said as Anderson turned to face me.

Halfway through removing them, my omni-tool flared up; I'd gotten a message from Seya.

_We're ready, moving on your mark._

I finished with the shackles and handed Anderson my pistol. "Here, unless you want to use a sniper in here, this is the best I can do."

"It'll have to do. Let's go."

"Sure. Let me go first, I'll take out the guard quietly."

I quickly sent a message to Seya, letting her know I was moving out, and telling her to stay put, before exiting the cell and moving towards the guard.

He was facing away from me, currently patrolling towards the entrance. I moved up behind him and drew my knife, before plunging it into the side of his neck where his armor was the weakest. With my knife still embedded in his neck, I thrust it forward, severing his throat and disabling his ability to scream. He never stood a chance. As he started to collapse, I caught his armored form, laying him down carefully on the ground so as to not make any noise.

"All clear, you can come out." I said as I wiped off my knife before sheathing it again.

They came out of their respective cells, weapons drawn.

"I'm gonna go check out the main room, you guys wait here."

I moved down the corridor and put my back against the wall before opening the door and peeking through.

Like before, there was almost no one there, with the exception of one man, presumably on guard duty, who sat at one of the weapons benches looking out at the room.

I called out as I walked over to him. "Hey, anything interesting happen today?"

"Nah man, it's all been cool." He replied as I closed in on him.

Coming up right next to him I asked, "So, when's the next shift change?"

"It's at one o' clock, I've still got over an hour to kill." He seemed dissatisfied at that fact.

"Yeah, I feel your pain, I've got some shit I need to kill too." I said dryly, before I quickly reached out, grasped his head and twisted. I was rewarded with a sickening crunch; his neck was positively broken. 'Sweet, I didn't even make a mess.'

I dragged his lifeless body over to the others; they had placed the first body in a cell, so I dumped the new one in there too, before rejoining them.

They had made their way to the door that lead to the bedroom of the Vikings' current leader. Between when I originally joined the Vikings and now, there had been a total of five changes in leadership. If you managed to become leader, you couldn't expect to stay that way for long. You either stepped down, or were killed by someone else aspiring to become the leader. It seemed the current leader had over-stayed his welcome.

The door was locked, but thankfully, we had our very own Quarian, so locked doors didn't count for a lot; she had the door opened in less than five seconds.

Walking inside, it became obvious he was asleep. Lying right next to him on the bed was a nude human woman, probably a slave. I pointed to Shepard and then to the woman. He nodded his acknowledgement. We walked up on each side of the bed, standing above the people lying there.

I drew my knife and held up three fingers to Michael. Two. One. We both reached down and placed our hands over the mouths of our targets, Shepard more carefully so than I. When the leader opened up his eyes and realized the situation, trying to scream, I slit his throat. As the woman woke up and realized she was lying next to a dying man, she tried to scream and escape the marine's strong grip.

I climbed over the dead man's body and looked her in the eyes, trying to calm her down. "Listen to me, we're not going to hurt you." I said quietly. She settled down at that, but didn't seem any less shocked. "I can't promise you're not going to get hit by any stray bullets, though. You need to leave, _now_, and go someplace safe. Can you do that?" She nodded. "Good. Release her and let her gather her stuff." Michael did, and she immediately set to gather her belongings, mostly being her clothes.

When we walked out into the main room, the girl having already escaped, the sight of a full squad returning to base met us.

"Hey, Eric!" The leader greeted me. The rest of the squad turned to face us as I greeted him back.

They started whispering amongst each other. "Where's the rest of his team?" Someone asked louder than the others. The whispers turned into murmurs of discontent. "Why do they have N7 armor?" Someone in the crowd almost shouted.

The leader raised his weapon towards us. "Yeah, good question. You wanna answer them, Eric?"

"Look, there's a perfectly reasonable explanatio-" I was interrupted by one of the squad members firing his gun at us.

I threw myself into cover behind a pillar, watching as my allies did the same behind other pillars. 'Looks like they're not interested in hearing me out.' I thought when I was finally in cover.

Taking a few pot shots at our assailants, I shouted over to the marines. "This is what I brought you for, make yourselves useful!"

Peeking around the corner quickly, I noticed the other squad had taken cover as well. I threw a grenade in their general direction and waited for it to explode before I coalesced a barrier and twirled around the pillar, out in the open, ready to fire at them.

As soon as someone stuck out their head, we were there, ready to fire. If not by me, they died from someone else. Admittedly, the marines were less helpful than I'd hoped, but all they had were our lousy pistols, not the hi-tech equipment they were used to.

Before long, the only ones still standing were Seya, Shepard, Anderson and I; all the others were either dead or dying.

"Good thing we brought you guys." Seya said to the N7 operatives as she put her weapon back in its mag-clamp.

"Yeah," I agreed, "couldn't have done that without you." I marched over to the door leading to the so-called "treasury". It was really just the room we stored the safe in. "Come on, if there's anyone else here who hasn't shown up from all that noise yet, they're not in a condition where they're a danger to us. Let's see what our prize looks like."

I opened the door and we all filed in. The room was empty except for a desk with an extranet terminal, and a wall-safe on the far wall, right behind the desk.

"Seya, do your thing." I said, gesturing towards the terminal and the safe.

"With pleasure." She responded as she made her way over to the safe.

She had the safe hacked within minutes. "Check it, I'm moving on to the terminal." She said as she moved towards the computer.

Inside the safe laid only one thing, a tiny, little credit chit. I checked it for its balance.

'Holy shit, that's a lot of credits.' I thought as I weighed it in my hand. "How's it looking?"

"This is amazing, Eric! There are enough credits here to buy a ship!"

"Take it." I said flatly, putting the chit down on the desk as well.

"Right, I'll wire half to you and half to me." She replied, as she was about to finish.

"No." I interrupted her, pausing for effect. "You take it. Take it and buy a ship for your pilgrimage gift."

"Oh no, I couldn't take all this, besides, you deserve your share and-" She started babbling. I had to interrupt her.

'Cute. Like Tali.' "No, I want you to have it. Don't make me pull rank." I smirked.

"I… I don't know what to say. Thank you." She said before she jumped up into my arms and hugged me, hooking her legs behind me.

I returned her embrace, holding her tight for a while. I pulled my head back as I spoke softly to her. "Just remember that not all humans are racist assholes."

I put her down and she took a step back, holding me at arm's length, looking right into my eyes. "I could never forget about you, Eric. Thank you, again." She hugged me again for good measure.

When she was finished hugging me, I turned to the marines who'd stood by watching awkwardly throughout the entire exchange. "Now, how about we blow up this place?"

"Sounds great."

We made our way to the armory where we placed incendiary explosives. "Right, after I set this charge to blow, we have two minutes to get out of here before the entire place blows up. We ready?" Shepard explained what the plan looked like. We all replied in the affirmative.

He readied the explosives. "All right…" He started as he finished up with the explosives. "_GO!_"

We made a mad dash out the door, down the corridor leading to the main hall, through the hall and out the front doors. We continue running for half a minute before turning around and looking at the compound.

As we waited for it to blow up, I started to get a bit worried. "Shouldn't it have blown up by now? Are you sure y-" I was interrupted by a loud explosion and large flames coming out of every window of the warehouse.

Shepard slowly turned his head to look at me with a grin. "… Nevermind." I conceded.

"Come on, let's head back so we can finally get out of here." Anderson suggested. I agreed, and we headed back.

* * *

**1:06 AM, January 2nd, 2173, Stockholm, Sweden, Earth**

We stood in the hole in the wall that was supposed to pass for a window, looking at the twisted, burning wreckage that was all that was left of the old warehouse. 'It's kind of beautiful, in a weird, corrupted, and psychotic way.'

Anderson woke me up from my thoughts. "Eric, you ready to go? We are all set, the shuttle is nearby, waiting for us."

"Just give me a minute, I'll be right with you." I said absently as my eyes went back to the fire.

'Well, this is it for now, Earth… I'll see you around, I guess…" I thought before following the others.

* * *

**1:13 AM, January 2nd, 2173, Stockholm, Sweden, Earth**

The shuttle looked like an older version of the UT-47 Kodiak, and I quickly realized it probably was, too. As I approached the small ship, I noticed Seya, Anderson and the rogue sniper sat in the troop compartment, with Shepard in the cockpit.

I was the last to go aboard the shuttle, and as I did so, I closed the door behind me and called to Shepard. "We're all good; ready when you are, Shepard."

I felt the small ship lurch as I sat down on a bench in the troop compartment. Shepard soon came out of the cockpit after we had taken off, the shuttle obviously flying on autopilot.

"So, you wanna discuss how you plan on getting me into the marines?" I looked at Anderson.

"Let's talk about that later. It's getting late; we should try to get some sleep. Today has been a long day."

"Fuck that shit!" I got angry. 'That fucker promised me. Joining the military is my biggest, and probably only chance to meet Shepard before the shit hits the fan. And I'm going to fix everything this time.' "You promised me you'd get me in, now tell me how you're gonna do it!"

"I…" He was very obviously uncomfortable with what he was about to say.

"Well, spit it out!" I was starting to get furious. 'Surely Anderson of all people can't screw me over?'

He gathered up some courage and began. "There's no way they're letting in an ex-gang banger into the marines. It doesn't matter if you helped us with this mission, they're never gonna trust you." I stared at him in cold fury. "However, they will have no problem letting in the son of a decorated special-forces officer."

'What's he talking about?' I had no idea what was going on, and voiced my lack of understanding. "What?"

"I'm planning on adopting you." He said, fully serious, before continuing in a more joking manner, "Welcome to the family, son."

"_WHAT?_"

* * *

A/N: Didn't see that one coming, did you? :P

Next chapter is a ways away, I haven't started on it yet, and I have NO idea how I'm going to write it, so don't expect it before a week, at _least_. You guys should probably know that I don't have every detail planned out so far, just a couple of major plot points. So I basically make everything up as I go. Fun, huh?!


	3. Ch3 - Arcturus

A/N: Sorry about the long wait and the shortness of this chapter. This was supposed to be part of the next chapter, but that's nowhere near done, and it's been almost a week, so I figured I'd resolve the cliff hanger from last chapter with this short one. Still looking for a beta if anyone's interested.

* * *

**1:17 AM, January 2nd 2173, Airspace above Stockholm, Sweden, Earth**

"_WHAT?!_" I exclaimed, unsure if I had heard Anderson correctly.

"Well, it would mostly be just in name. I mean, you're a grown man, you wouldn't actually be my son." Anderson calmly explained.

'He wasn't joking when he said he'd adopt me.' The realization finally started sinking in.

"Are you _insane_?!" Shepard apparently found this a good time to butt in. "If he continues his illegal path, you'll take a metric shit-ton of political blow-back!" It seemed saving his life hadn't earned me Michael's trust.

"I promise you, I won't betray your trust." I quickly pleaded to Anderson.

"I don't know why, but somehow I believe you." Anderson answered. He turned to Shepard. "You know me, I don't back down on promises I've made; we have to get him into the military. And this is the only way, you know that too."

"I… There's no way I will ever be able to repay this debt. Thank you for giving me this second chance."

"I'm just doing the right thing, kid."

Deciding to change the subject, I asked, "So, where are we headed right now, anyway?"

"We have to report back to Arcturus Station." Shepard started. "You will be able to enlist there too, and your Quarian frien-"

I interrupted him, tired of the obvious racism everywhere. "Seya."

His eyes met mine briefly before nodding and continuing. "Right, _Seya_ can get a shuttle from there to the Citadel, and getting from there to the Migrant Fleet should just be a hop, skip and a jump."

"Okay, I'm not sure what that meant, but if it meant it should be easy, you're right." Seya answered. "There are plenty of ships travelling between the Citadel and the Fleet. Besides, I have to buy my pilgrimage gift, too." She added with a smirk.

"Well, looks like this will all work out for the best. I think I'll try to catch some shut-eye, tomorrow's gonna be a big day."

"Sure, we'll wake you up when we get to Arcturus." Someone said as I leaned towards the wall to my side, already drifting off to sleep.

* * *

**5:26 AM, January 2nd 2173, Empty Space, Arcturus, Arcturus Stream**

I half-laid propped up against the wall when I started to stir from my sleep. After a short moment, I noticed something weighing me down. I opened my eyes to look down at the sight of Seya leaning against me, her arms around my midsection, embracing me, fast asleep.

A smile spread across my face, as I gently laid a hand on her back, before slightly shifting my weight and going back to sleep.

* * *

**10:47 AM, January 2nd 2173, Empty Space, Arcturus, Arcturus Stream**

"…ake up, we're almost there." I woke up to Seya gently nudging my arm and talking to me.

As I opened my eyes, I saw her looking at her omni-tool, presumably looking for a way home.

"Hey, Seya." I started, looking at her. "When I woke up in the middle of the night, you had snuggl-" She interrupted me before I could finish.

"I'm so sorry, Eric." She said, disengaging her omni-tool and meeting my gaze. "I was just so tired, and it had been a long day, and-" Now it was my turn to interrupt her.

"Don't worry about it." I said, smiling awkwardly. "In fact, I quite enjoyed it. It's been so long since I just sat down." I found myself quoting Anderson as I sighed. "Just sat down and hugged it out with a friend." I ended with a content smile.

"Oh… Well, in that case, you're welcome, I guess." I could hear on her voice that she was smiling.

I heard Shepard calling back at us from the cockpit. "Hey back there, you should get yourself ready, we're landing in just a couple of minutes."

"Will do." I called back.

Seeing as I was wearing everything I currently owned, I just leaned back and relaxed.

* * *

**10:58 AM, January 2nd 2173, Arcturus Station, Arcturus, Arcturus Stream**

We disembarked one by one, stepping out into a large hangar, containing a large host of ships; everything from shuttles, to gunships, to destroyers.

'Holy shit, this isn't a space station, this is a _city_!' I thought as I looked up towards the ceiling, several dozen yards up. Or rather, I realized, the bulkhead that might as well pass as a ceiling.

"Keelah…" Seya was taking it all in, looking around the room, completely in awe. "This is almost as big as the _Citadel_!" She twirled around and looked at me.

"Yeah, Arcturus Station is pretty impressive." Shepard said as he moved up to us, holding the squirming, handcuffed prisoner's arm.

Anderson walked over to us as well. "LT, you take him," He said, gesturing to the detainee, "and hand over our report to Alliance command." They must have written up the report while Seya and I slept, as I hadn't seen them do it. "I'll sort everything up with Eric, and then I'll contact you again."

"Yessir." Shepard answered with a salute before walking off with the rogue marine.

Anderson turned to Seya. "You can get a ticket to go to the Citadel at one of those info-desks," He said, pointing to one of the many desks lining the walls of the giant room, each with a sign portraying a huge "i" above them. "We need to walk halfway across the station to reach the enlistment office." He continued explaining, turning to me. "I'll give you some time to say good-bye while I check in with the dock-master." Anderson stated before doing so.

Seya threw her arms around me, catching me by surprise before I reciprocated.

"I'll miss you." I whispered while still holding her tight.

"I'll miss you too." She replied, finishing with a snivel. "Stupid immune system." She sniveled again. "My suit must have been breached in the battle without me noticing." Snivel.

I laughed softly. "Yeah, probably." My eyes were starting to well up as well. "I… Promise you'll write?" I asked her, cliché as it may be.

"Yeah, I promise." She said as she let go of me, taking a step backwards. If it was a cliché in Quarian culture she didn't mention it.

"Keelah se'lai, Seya'Gerell."

"Keelah se'lai." She replied, giving me a last, quick hug before turning around and walking over to the nearest info desk.

As I was watching her walking away, I felt a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. It's never easy saying good-bye to a girlfriend."

"O-oh, she- She's not-" I stumbled on the words, somewhat flustered, as I turned my head towards Anderson. "She's not my girlfriend." I finally managed to blurt out. "She's just a good friend."

"Oh. Well, it's never easy saying good-bye to friends either, good ones especially." He paused for a while. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah." I answered, stealing a last glance of her before walking off with Anderson.

We walked mostly in silence as we made our way to the enlistment office. Anderson's way of giving me space, I suppose. I appreciated it.

* * *

As we turned a corner, I could see a sign sporting the System Alliance's logo sticking out of the wall. Beneath it there was a text reading _System Alliance Marine Corps. Enlistment Office_.

We walked up to the entrance, but before I can go inside, Anderson puts out an arm in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. "Let me do the talking in there." He said, looking straight ahead, right at the door. "I'll handle everything."

"Sure. I'll trust you."

Anderson opened the door, and we entered.

The enlistment office was made up of only one room, decorated entirely in silver and blue. It was sparsely furnished; there was only a metal desk with a terminal and handful of personal items belonging to the sole occupier of the room, a man sitting behind the desk. The walls were all silver-colored, but on the wall opposite the entrance there was an SA emblem painted straight onto the wall.

As we walked inside, the man sitting at the desk, presumably the enlistment officer, addressed us. "Welcome, how may I help you fine gentlemen today?"

Anderson spoke up, while I shut up like I had been told. "This young man here wishes to enlist. You should also know that I'm adopting him, but it's not finalized yet, so it would be smoother to do everything under my name."

"Right, that won't be a problem. Name?"

"His name is Eric Anderson."

* * *

I honestly thought it would be harder, but Anderson just answered the enlistment officer's list of questions, and before long, I was enlisted, just like that.

Before we left, the enlistment officer sent me some data about where to be and at what time to my omni-tool. I was in luck; there was a new basic military training course starting on Luna just a day later. The shuttle was departing from Arcturus later the same day.

When we had stepped outside the office, Anderson turned to me. "You won't be allowed to bring that armor and those weapons to basic. You'll either have to store them somewhere, or sell them."

"This piece-of-shit gear is worse than standard issue, if that's even possible, so there's no use in keeping it. I'd rather just sell it and make a couple of quick creds."

"Sure. The nearest place where you can sell stuff like that is this way." He pointed in the direction opposite from where we came from. "Let's go."

* * *

The shop turned out to be a military surplus dealer, where I sold my guns and armor and bought some slacks to wear until I got to basic.

We walked to the waiting lounge where I was supposed to wait until I could board the shuttle to Luna.

"I'll take care of everything, you don't have to worry." Anderson explained again.

"Again, thanks… I'll never be able be able to repay you." I offered my hand, and he shook it.

"Well, I guess I'll, ah, see you around, I guess…" He said somewhat awkwardly.

"Yeah, see ya, _dad_." I emphasized the pronoun while grinning.

I saluted him before I turned around and walked towards a seating area. When I sat down and looked that way again, he was gone.

I decided to make myself more comfortable, figuring I could as well sleep for a bit while I was waiting for the shuttle. I set an alarm on my omni-tool to ring a bit before the shuttle was set to leave, before closing my eyes, quickly drifting away.

* * *

I quickly woke up at the sound of my alarm, seeing a short queue leading out of the waiting lounge. I moved over and got in at the back of the line.

When I got to the front, all they asked for is my name, and I replied, "Eric Anderson." I took a strange sense of pride in the name Anderson. 'Huh, odd.'

I filed in on the shuttle for Luna, got to my seat and sat down, before quickly falling asleep again. I hadn't been able to get a full night's sleep in four months. I was obscenely tired.

* * *

A/N: There we go, one miniature chapter later! The next chapter will be "Eric goes to basic... Again", so I'll bring out all my boot camp films! That was also the part I didn't (still don't, really) know how to write. I don't know when it's going to be done, but don't expect it any time soon.


End file.
